It would appreciate it a lot if I get get some info on these TD games' music. I am mostly interested in what genre(s) they use and if they have lifelike synth/live instruments used, not good not bad synth, or just synth that doesn't really sound like an instrument.

Browning
Black Hole Assault
Basted
Burai II
Dynastic Hero
Double Dragon II
Neo Metal Fantasy
Faussete Armor
Fray In Magical Adventure
Genocide
Gradius II
Iga Ninden Gaiou
Hyper Wars
Jim Power
Kaze Kiri
Kisou Louga
Kisou Louga II
KO Seiki Beast-Gaia FuKkatsu Kanketsu Hen
Magicoal
Mystic Formula
Neo Nectaris
Ruin-Kami No Isan
Seisenshi Denshou-Jantaku no Kishi
Sol Moonarge
Startling Odyssey
Startling Odyssey II
Slyphia
The Fang of Alnam
Xak I&II
Xak III
Vasteel
Vasteel II

Also, if you want, you could suggest some TD titles with good music, I'm mostly interested in ones that take advantage of the CD quality, if you do suggest, please also tell the genre(s).

First of all, I <b>wish</b> I had <b>half</b> the games on your list.

I can only tell you for certain about Dynastic Hero, which has some good-sounding,not convincingly real instrumentation. But the most noticeable thing is the bass synth. Some tracks make good use of slap-bass and it's an overall enjoyable soundtrack. It's cartoony-sounding and fits the game perfectly, with the more dramatic tracks being saved for the later stages. For comparison's sake, I'd say "not quite old-school Falcom."

The game is also the grand opus as far as the Wonder Boy series goes... play it if you can.

I have the village track from Dynastic Hero and I love it, that is why I put it up there, it was almost moving. I actually thought that synth was lifelike, shows what I know.

Ah, good ol' Turbo music.  I'll help out where I can.

Black Hole Assault
EXCELLENT soundtrack in my opinion.  One of my favorite redbook soundtracks ever, in fact.  It's the exact same as the Sega CD version, if you ever heard it.  High quality synths for its day.  Upbeat, pumping rock.  Great music for a mecha fighting game.

Dynastic Hero
Like the others mentioned, this game has a pretty decent soundtrack.  DH was actually a licensed remake of Wonderboy III for Genesis, but the soundtrack is totally different.  The synth quality is rather good, but it's not one of my favorite Turbo soundtracks overall.

Double Dragon II
A HUGE let down.  Oh my god.  This game could have done wonders with the original DDII score on redbook, had it stuck to it, that is.  Instead the music is totally different and extremely average in my opinion.  The game blew too.  Go for the Mega Drive version if anything.

Kaze Kiri
Pretty good soundtrack in my view.  The synth quality is a bit aged, but has this nostalgic, pleasing quality to it.  It's very old school.  The music is upbeat, ninja action "zundara" style.  Definitely check this one out if you like old school action music.

Kisou Louga
Fairly solid.  The style of music is synth orchestra in a vein similar to Shining Force, with lots of upbeat, march themes.  The orchestration and harmony is a bit more colorful than Shining Force CD (for example), but I still prefer Shining's melodic style a bit better.

Neo Nectaris
One of my favorite Turbo soundtracks.  No live instruments, but the orchestrated synth quality is pretty damn good for it's day.  Lots of bold, war-themed melodies.  Definitely check this one out.

Startling Odyssey II
For what few redbook tracks this game has (most of the game's BGM is PSG), the music is OK.  There's a mix of both rock and orchestrated styles, and even a vocal if I remember correctly.  Just wish there were more tracks.  Not worth pursuing for music alone probably.

Xak III
Standard action-RPG fare with no tracks that really stand out.  Pretty generic redbook quality synths too.  Don't bother with this one, even though the game itself actually isn't half bad.

As for other recommendations, aside from the obvious (Dracula X, Ys, Lords of Thunder, Langrisser, Dungeon Explorer II, etc. etc.), here are a few others that come to mind.

Efera & Jiliora The Emblem of Darkness
A pretty boring RPG/shooter game based on the old anime with a sleeper hit of a soundtrack.  Synth-rock quality that's pleasing to the ear, and reminds me a lot of Dungeon Explorer II's music.

Tenshi No Uta I, II
You probably already know about these and that they were composed by Michiko Naruke, but in case you didn't, now you do.  Definitely not up to snuff with her Wild Arms scores, but pretty decent nonetheless.  Style is well...RPGish light orchestra I'd say.

Lemmings
Yes, there was a PCE Engine CD version of this game too.  Whether or not you like the Lemmings soundtrack is up to you, but this game had some of the best versions of the Lemmings themes out there.  Totally destroys the other redbook version floating around, which was taken from the PSX release I think.  Has a nice Japanese synthy spin to it.

Fiend Hunter
An awesome game that got no love.  Don't be fooled if you ever heard the terrible vocal arrange album that was released.  The in-game music is actually pretty good.  Half of it was PSG, but the battle music was all redbook, and is generally upbeat rock, with a few funky and orchestral themes thrown in here and there.  If nothing else, get this one to play the game WHILE listening to the music.

That's it off the top of my head for now.  Happy hunting.

- Justin Pfeiffer

I have an album called Genocide:

http://gmronline.com/info.asp?CatNumber=TOCT-5724

I believe it has the X68000 soundtrack, though. The arranged tracks are good and there are some memorable melodies.

Does anyone know if Nexr's music is pretty good? Thanks for the info and suggestions, I hope I will see more posts like xanadujin's.

EDIT: Added some new titles to the list that looked like they would have quality music.

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Ha ha, oh don't worry.  I said above that I'd "omit the obvious," and I consider any Turbo games by Falcom  "obvious."   But in fact now that you mention it, I still would not recommend LoX purely for redbook music alone.  There's only a few isolated tracks on there that don't have dialogue over top of them.  Most of the redbook-sounding tracks from the OST were actually played during in-game cinematic sequences with dialogue at a terribly low bit rate.  Now of course, if Zaggart is willing to play through the game and get all the music, then heeeeeeell yeah.   But I was under the impression he was just looking for redbook music.

But since some things may not be as obvious as I thought, I'd better add Dragon Slayer: The Legend of Heroes II to the list then.  I thought it topped the original Dragon Slayer's soundtrack on the Turbo versions. 

Oh, and I also forgot to add Gate of Thunder, which was done by the same team as Lords of Thunder.  Has some really good power rock and synth tracks.

The Turbo version of Sorcerian by Victor had some of the best arrangements out there of the game's main themes.  The entire soundtrack is huge and couldn't fit on the disc, but it's definitely worth checking out.  I omitted this one earlier as obvious as well.

And Zaggart, I see you added Vasteel I and II to the list.  Here's the skinny on them.

Vasteel
One of Working Designs' first ports ever.  This was a mech strategy game set up like Advance Wars, except you controlled the battle encounters in real-time action.  It was actually a pretty cool game (with a lame story).  The music was a trip though.  In the game, you had a option of setting it to PSG or CD.  The PSG music was this cheesy, upbeat fodder that could only be hacked for a matter of minutes.  Changing it to CD, one might expect something similar in redbook form, but instead it's straight up elevator music!  Here you have this futuristic, mecha war game centered around two twin brothers' rivalry and struggle for power, accompanied by this lazy afternoon, sit in a chair and fall asleep music!  What the hell.  At any rate, way back then, I thought the music was completely ridiculous.  But since widening my musical tastes over time and having gone back and listened to it in more recent years, I found it to be not half bad!  Ya gotta dig slow jazz and fusion though.   And there ARE live instruments on this one.  Just forget what you know about the game in imagine you're in a hotel lobby or something.

Vasteel II
This came out years after the first Vasteel and received a complete anime-style make-over and a cool story.  Unfortunately they took out the real-time action battles, and the music ended up being pretty average.  Just cheesy, redbook rock for the most part.  Nothing pivotal.

Hope this helps.

- Justin Pfeiffer

Thanks for the info on the Vasteel games, I was hoping one of them would have jazz/fusion, and the one that does is cheap. I should probably mention that I don't like Falcom, actually, I detest Falcom because most of their albums and games with redbook have let me down tremendously. I still wonder why people say Ys I&II and Ys III PCE took advantage of the cd audio.

I'm still waiting to find Gate of Thunder for a good price. You said that Efera & Jiliora The Emblem of Darkness is reminiscent of DEII in synth rock, does that mean it has mostly synth leading and just the guitar for low background volume and super short solos? I didn't like DEII that much partly becuase of that. I had plans to get Imaginarium this weekend but I guess it'll have to wait because the West Exit has some games you recommended for purchase becuase of their music at very low prices. You are right, I only want these games becuase of their music, I wouldn't be able to play a TD game for more than 5 minutes.

PCE redbook is a large and fruitful area for VGM, so i thusly refuse to go in depth on this subject (mostly because i just drunkenly vomitted into a trashcan beside me while reading this), but i will touch a little on your comments.  Hyper Wars is definitely one you want.  this masterpiece, the product of T's Musics's Yasutaka Hatade, is a hard rock production combined with minimal keyboard, organ, guitar, bass, and drums.  while the entire production is only less than 22 minutes long, it is among the pinacles of this era's top form productions.. raw and high quality sound, baby.  don't miss it for your life, son!

Bravo!  *applauds*